CONTACT

The Same, But Different: Toyota Yaris Review

April 21, 2016

No Comments

1444

The Toyota Yaris is one of those generically capable modern hatchbacks that goes about its business with an understated competence. Toyota has made cars like this for generations, which get on with safely moving people from A to B with the minimum of fuss but complete reliability.

Other than the face-lifted car’s unique frontal styling where lights, grill and badge form a large ‘X’ shape, the Yaris is a subtle, slightly rotund five-door hatchback that’s a bit bigger than your typical ‘supermini.’ It’s not an ugly car, but its design does not necessarily stand out in the crowd.

Climb inside and there’s more of the same. The seats are well shaped and comfortable, you’ll find a decent amount of space in the back, and everything’s well made for a sensible and simple cabin.

The dashboard is slightly less simple, but the controls work well, fall easily to hand and the heat/vent rotary knobs are rather stylish.

The softer materials used on the steering wheel, compared to the hard plastic on its predecessor, are a welcome update for added comfort and luxury.

The six-speed manual gearbox was nice to use, and handled very tidily, with accurate steering, plenty of grip in bends and a commendable lack of body roll –all this is effective rather than fun, which suits the character of the car. I thought the ride a little choppy, but no more so than many of its rivals.

The 1,329cc petrol engine was smooth and quiet at low speeds and proved willing in the lower gears, where I found the throttle response to be mildly jerky. The Yaris struggled slightly on inclines. When driving uphill the car would often run out of zest, and even dropping down a couple of gears wouldn’t always help which meant selecting a lower gear than was ideal and a lot of high revving mechanical screaming.

That aside there’s little to complain about with the Yaris, an everyman’s (and woman’s) car that provides fuss-free, no-nonsense transport which is easy to live with if not especially exciting to write about.